This invention relates generally to holsters for holding fasteners and, more particularly, to holsters useful for holding clips of fasteners, such as nails, staples, rivets, bolts or screws, used in power nailers or staplers in the construction industry.
Construction workers, particularly those working on wood frame buildings, typically use power nailers and staplers in their trade. The nails and staples used in these tools are formed into "clips" that normally contain dozens of nails or staples each. These clips are loaded into a tool and fed automatically thereby so that the nails or staples in the clip are dispensed individually by the tool. On a construction site, clips are typically stored at one location. When a worker uses up all of the clips in his possession, he must return to that storage location to obtain new clips. As a result, a worker who can carry more clips on his person without creating a safety hazard can spend more time working, and less time traveling to and from the clip storage location.
Because a worker's hands must be free to operate his tools, clips are normally carried in, or attached to, the worker's clothing. The storage capacity of the average shirt, pants or jacket pocket is inadequate to hold many clips; and the design of these pockets does not usually allow the worker easy access to clips stored therein. Accordingly, construction workers most often carry their clips in a cloth or leather "nail apron". Nail aprons were originally designed to hold loose nails. They have a large pocket with the capacity to hold numerous clips, and a wide enough opening to allow easy access to the clips.
Because such aprons were not designed with clips in mind, however, the pocket is not shaped so as to hold clips securely, or in any sort of orderly configuration. As a result, clips held in nail aprons can often fall out of the apron pocket when the worker moves, and such clips are awkward for the worker to grasp when they are needed to refill a tool. Also, because the clips in a nail apron pocket strike against each other as the worker moves, the clips often break apart into partial clips and/or individual nails or staples making their use more difficult or impossible. Most power nailers and staplers cannot in fact use individual nails or staples, and all such tools are typically less efficient when loaded with partial clips.
A specialized holster designed to avoid the problems described above has long been needed in the construction industry, but this need has gone unmet until the development of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a new and improved holster for use by construction workers for carrying and accessing clips of fasteners, such as nails and/or staples.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and improved holster that allows swift and easy removal of individual clips.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved holster that minimizes the impact caused amongst the clips stored therein when a worker wearing the holster moves, thus reducing breakage of the clips.